Well it has been an interesting summer, I have been so busy at work it flew by very quickly. It's been tough, but we are coming to the slower part of the year. Students are all going back to school so they will have less time to take additional language training, there also won't be so many students hanging around the center all the time so you will get less questions in general. This is also where all of the time off in the year is. We have a few autumn and winter festivals that give several days off in a row, not to mention one day holidays as well. So looking forward to some much deserved time off. Yesterday was September 11th, I was extremely ill when I got up. I had to miss my first two classes at work and such, but got there near the end of the day to teach my last three classes which really made my boss happy. They owed me a class anyhow, it's funny the type of questions people as you on September 11th. I am going to post all of my newer videos on the blog for you guys, but the fact is, youtube changed their layout so it's a bit harder and less convenient to get the addresses for the vids, I am going to try embedding one in this post and see how it works. My girlfriend and I have been splitsville for a while, we actually broke up the day before my birthday. She was living with me at the time, I was having money trouble with the school. I was broke, pennyless, and couldn't afford to really eat. It wasn't the best time for her to be staying with me but there were extenuating circumstances behind the whole thing so ... it's just a long story. I was angry at the school not paying me on time as it ruined my birthday plans, She was upset because I seemed like such a looser and I'm supposed to be rich. She was whining like a little baby, my plate was full and I had a short fuse, she wouldn't stop after being asked repeatedly to do so. I kept telling her that if she was really hungry all she had to do was go spend a couple days with her parents, she wouldn't stop I got really angry and had to physically kick her ass out of my place. She slapped me, she cried, she couldn't believe I had "Changed" so much. It wasn't so much that I had changed, it was more like she hasn't. We stayed apart for a few weeks, She gradually started trying to weasel her way back into my life by coming to hankou and meeting me after work, by this time she had gotten a really good job, but she works an hour away so it was more convenient for her to get to hankou. All she did though was disrespect me in public and ask me to buy her things. A friend of mine was also in the country at the time so she was making it really hard to spend equal time with everyone. Near the end of the month I missed her and everything but she was just to demanding for money and disrespectful to me and of my wishes that I had to tell her that I was simply done with her and never wanted to see her again. I believe this was around the last day of June as my friend was leaving. In fact the day all of this happened she kept trying to come to my place to give me a "Gift". The only reason she bought me a gift was to prove that you can get things for someone on a low salary, she showed up at my apartment while my friend was here getting ready to go to the train station, when I had told her several times that I didn't want her gift and I didn't have time for her today as I was quite busy with other things, and just didn't want to see her anyway. She made a big deal about it, she cried, but I just held to my guns and asked her to leave. It took a bit but she did eventually, most likely upset that she had wasted her time and money, and had to sit on a huge long bus ride to get to me. Again I told her many times not to even bother. So time goes by, lots of time, I expected to hear from her in a few days, but it was actually a month before I got a text message from her. All it said was "It's been a month, and I still miss you, love you." I managed to go a couple more weeks after that without seeing her again, but we have been seeing each other 1 day a weeks for the past 6 weeks. We actually are pretty good friends, better friends than a couple to be honest. She now understands the things I don't like about her, and I understand what she doesn't like about me. these aren't really things we are interested in changing about ourselves right now, so we are just trying to enjoy the limited time we can spend with each other. When you really think about it, the fact that she lives over an hour away and she only comes into the city one day a week, and I only have one of those days off together with her, the relationship would have ended up like this eventually anyway. We would still be in the same position that we are in right now even if we hadn't had a fight. Also, she and I wouldn't really work as a couple she has no real wish to move to the US, she loves her country, and she is doing well here. If I took her to the US it would most likely be because we are interested in starting a family and are interested in sending them to public school, other than that she has no interest in leaving China, I have no wish to stay forever. the second nail in the coffin is that her parents hate foreigners, they think they are all lazy and useless, they didn't even know we were going out. So even with just those two points the relationship can't go anywhere, she has also expressed interest in a guy she knows from her new job, a Chinese guy this time around. You see in eastern society guys are expected to do certain things, it's really just a bunch of traditional bullshit that hasn't evolved with the rest of the world, it's starting to change a little bit but slowly. So even if I wanted to marry her I would have to buy her a house. Generally the guys family is supposed to help with the down payment, you guys have expressed a lack of money and it would take me a long time to save enough and I'm just not interested in staying that long. Owning a home here would be cool as I can rent it out and it will pay for itself and eventually give me some extra income, and increase in value if I wish to sell it. So the two of us have come to realize this, we see each other once a week, hug and kiss a little as the relationship does work well for physical intimacy and that is one thing we both really miss from each other. we go see a movie now and then and such, she actually gets more money out of me as a less demanding friend, than as a really demanding significant other. Still I wish things had worked out, but at least I didn't waste 6 years this time around
